Latest Newsletter – 30 September 2021

Newsletter Date:  31st September 2021

Issue: 14/21

Kia ora Team Bayview

I would like to acknowledge you all for the amazing job you have done in supporting your child’s learning from home for the past six weeks while at the same time juggling work commitments and family life. We recognise that this has been really tough for some families and we salute you. Also a huge thank you to our essential workers who have tirelessly worked long hours throughout the alert level changes. Thank you for all you have done and continue to do for us all. 

As a staff we are so proud of all of our learners and their resilience and ability to adapt to learning from home. Some areas that we have noticed and want to celebrate are:

• The confidence that has been developed, particularly in those students who are normally shy at school
• Increased confidence with pronunciation and fluency in Te Reo Māori
• The way in which siblings have been working together, supporting each other with their learning from home and creating their own learning
• The learner agency that has developed – students seeing themselves as teachers and creating and sharing learning and activities to share with their peers
• The children’s ability to take on feedback and improve on or make changes to their learning
• The level of engagement and motivation from students
• Seeing parents and whanau getting involved with learning activities
• The creativity of our students and how resourceful they have become
• All the character strengths that have shined through each day!

We are extremely proud of the way our staff have responded to this challenging situation and the way they continue to provide the best learning from home experience for our students.

Here are some key statistics below to show the level of engagement through Seesaw during the lockdown period:

• 17,338 learning posts on student journals by students/families which is over 3000 journal posts per week by students.
• We had approximately 26,400 likes and 22,800 comments on students journal posts over the lockdown period. 
• Approximately 1700 visits to Seesaw from connected family members each week.
• There were approximately 4000 learning activities set for students on Seesaw during the lockdown period.
• Teachers facilitated around 400 Hours of Google Meets with students during the lockdown period.

 Thank you for all your positive feedback to our teachers to recognise the amazing job they have done. 

 As you know, we will find out on Monday if Auckland will move to alert level 2 or remain at alert level 3 for an extended period. The uncertainty of the unknown can create and cause anxiety and stress. While we are hoping to be at alert level 2 to start term 4 we have plans in place for whatever happens. We will communicate with you around any changes. All going well and we are at alert level 2 in Term 4, our focus will be on transitioning the children back to school and wellbeing will continue to be a priority. We will continue to update and refine our alert level 2 procedures and practices following the advice from the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education. 

TEACHER ONLY DAY

On Friday 12th November we will be holding a teacher only day as we work on assessment. We thank you in advance for making alternative arrangements as the school will be closed on this day.  We thank you for your support around this.

OUT OF ZONE ENROLMENTS

A reminder that our out of zone enrolments will be closing on Friday 15th October. If you are interested in applying for an out of zone position please download the out of zone intention to enrol form from our website: www.bayview.school.nz or use this link to fill it in online. OUT-OF-ZONE The Bayview Board of Trustees has decided to allow for only 30 out of zone places. Please note if we receive more than 30 applications we will have to go to a ballot according to the priorities set by the Ministry of Education. If the Board of trustees receives fewer applications than there are places available, all applicants will be enrolled. If you currently live within our school zone and have a child starting school at any time during the 2022 academic year, please fill in the intention to enrol form to help us with future planning. Our enrolment zone can be found on our website.

TERM 4 EVENTS

You may be wondering if any of our usual term 4 events will be going ahead with the current pandemic. At this stage we are planning for all contingencies. This means we have a plan for the possibility of being in either AL1, AL2 or AL3 or 4. At this stage we are planning as if we will be in Alert Level 1 and can proceed as we normally would. If required we will modify these events to cater for any and all alert level requirements. We will keep you updated as much as we can.

We have also received many questions around sport competitions for term 4. As soon as we have any information from the organisations we will communicate this with you. Thank you for your understanding around all of this.

Lastly, I just want to say a huge thank you from me for all the support and positive feedback I have received this term from you all, while I navigated the role of acting Principal. I have loved every minute and have learnt so much – what a term to learn! I would also like to congratulate Jacob Allison for the fantastic job he has done as Acting Deputy Principal and for all his support this term.

Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini — (My success is not my own, but from many others)

Ngā mihi 

Shelley Matuku